The 9th International Conference “ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING” 22–23 May 2014, Vilnius, Lithuania SELECTED PAPERS eISSN 2029-7092 / eISBN 978-609-457-640-9 Available online at http://enviro.vgtu.lt Section: Sustainable Urban Development The Applying of GIS in Identification of Structural-Functional Units at Urban Areas (Mysłowice Town Case Study, Silesian Upland) a b a c Tomasz Parusel , Anna Kowalczyk , Jarosław Banaszek , Weronika Dragan a Department of Physical Geography, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, 60 Będzińska Street, PL-41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland b Department of Cadastre and Spatial Management, Faculty of Geodesy and Land Management, University of Warmia and Mazury, 15 Prawocheńskiego Street, PL-10-724 Olsztyn, Poland c Department of Economy Geography, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, 60 Będzińska Street, PL-41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland Abstract The Mysłowice town is located within two mesoregions of south part of Silesian Upland: Katowice Upland (sign in Polish decimal system 341.13) and Jaworzno Hills (341.14). The town is situated in central part of Silesian Voivodeship, within the Upper Silesian conurbation (Katowice conurbation), and has special status (town-poviat, in Polish nomenclature: powiat grodzki ). The area of Mysłowice is 65.57 sq km and the number of inhabitants is currently about 72.8 thousands. The aim of paper is distinguishing and basic analyzing the differentiation and distribution of structural-functional units at the area of mentioned town. The units were identified on the base of two criteria: functions and physiognomic type of spatial planning unit. The landscape typology method and assumptions of physical- geographical regionalization method were used in identification process of units. The GIS methods and MapInfo Professional software were used as a main tool in this identification. All works were conducted on the base of topographic maps from 90. of XX century, town plan (2004) and orthophotomaps (2009) in Poland CS92 coordinate system (EPSG: 2180). At Mysłowice town area the total of 17 structural-functional units were identified (3 point, 3 linear and 11 polygonal character). Keywords: cultural landscapes; GIS methods; land use; Silesian Upland; structural-functional units. 1. Introduction The areas under influence of intensive human activity are often characterized by a great degree of the natural environment degradation and the important landscape changes as a consequence [1–5]. Each component of the environment have been remodelling, beginning from the interference in geological structure, through changes in relief, climatic conditions, features of hydrographic network and underground waters or soil, vegetation cover and animal world, often resulting from the earlier mentioned transformations [6–8]. The changes are especially visible in diverse of relief form of waste dump (mining, metallurgical and power ash waste) [3, 9], inactive quarries [10–11] and subsidence depressions [12]. An example of such areas is the Silesian Upland at south part of Poland. The area of Mysłowice town – located in south part of Silesian Upland and central part of Silesian Voivodeship – is changed since centuries by intensive human activity [13–14]. Due to high human impact the natural landscapes of this area are almost complete destroyed or are degraded in significant degree. The aim of paper is distinguishing and basic analyzing the differentiation and distribution of structural-functional units at this town area. The units were identified in order to better understanding of contemporary cultural landscapes at area of town. The units – referring to the land use form – are synthetic approach to the landscapes forming within the administrative boundaries of Mysłowice town. 2. Study area The Mysłowice town is located within two mesoregions of south part of Silesian Upland [15]: Katowice Upland (sign in Polish decimal system 341.13) and Jaworzno Hills (341.14). The town is located in central part of Silesian Voivodeship and has special status ( powiat grodzki , town-poviat). The area of Mysłowice is 65.57 sq km and the number of inhabitants is currently about 72.8 thousands. Town is located within the Upper Silesian conurbation (different name: Katowice Corresponding author: Tomasz Parusel. E-mail address: [email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.3846/enviro.2014.138 © 2014 The Authors. Published by VGTU Press. This is anopen-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. th 2 T. Parusel et al. / The 9 Conference Environmental Engineering. Selected Papers, Article number: enviro.2014.138 conurbation) [16]. Characteristic of town area is limited to the basic features of geological structure, relief, hydrographic conditions, soils and the distribution of forests, as a main environmental conditions for development of chosen structural- functional units. The area of Mysłowice town is located within the Upper Silesian basin. The Precambrian crystalline rocks are in deep- ground and Upper Carboniferous, Triassic, tertiary and quaternary layers are in zones near the surface. The Carboniferous rocks dominate in the part of the town in Katowice Upland mesoregion (north and central part of town area on Fig. 1). The Triassic dolomites, marls and limestones are only in the south and south-east part of study area (Jaworzno Hills mesoregion) [17] and have been exploited in numerous quarries [11, 18]. Tertiary sediments – Miocene sands and clays fill the depressions of older ground. The Pleistocene sands, gravels and clays and Holocene sediments (river alluvia and sands within the lowest floodplain terrace in the river valleys) are on the surface [17]. The maximum relative height at the town area is 100.5 meters, the highest point reaches 334 meters a.s.l. and the lowest – 233.5 m a.s.l. However, most of town area has is flat with inclination not exceeding 3%. The slopes are not very steep (up to 30%), only in active and inactive quarries are vertical rock walls. The main character of relief is associated with Alpine orogenesis (for example Przemsza river gap in south-east part of town) [17], but contemporary relief of town area is conditioned by intensive human impact. The anthropogenic relief forms are better visible than natural elements in the most part of town area [18]. The main river network in Mysłowice is formed by the Przemsza river with tributaries and Przyrwa river (tributary of Mleczna river). This system is complemented by numerous drainage ditches and artificial water reservoirs – subsidence depressions, ponds and industrial settling ponds [12]. Contemporary state of water relations is the effect of their natural development in Holocene and – especially – was conditioned by intensive human activity [18]. The soil cover in Mysłowice, due to the varied geological structure, should be more different potentially. However, the anthropogenic Technosols and Anthroposols dominate at the built-up and commercial areas of town. Furthermore, it is possible to indicate the areas completely devoid of any soil cover and with high toxic soils, which is confirmed by researches conducted in selected parts of town [3]. The natural soils are represented only by small fragments within forests and in south and south- east part of town area. The forest complexes are characterized by multiple transformation in species composition and currently a lack of conformity with actual vegetation and original habitat is observed [18]. The differentiation of species composition of other habitats is connected with anthropogenic landforms also [19]. 3. Materials and methods In the identification process of structural-functional units in the Mysłowice town were used two criteria: 1. functions of spatial planning unit, 2. physiognomic type of unit. The divide of main structural-functional unit types was based on first criteria. The divide of unit subtypes was based on second criteria. The basis for units classification was their similarity within the criteria, regarding to the landscape typology method [20]. Only one object was classified as individual unit (RTV Sending Centre) – in this case the assumptions of physical-geographical regionalization method were applied [15, 20]. In the identification the authors has been suggested by insights of Šimanauskienė and Rahmonov [21] also. The identification of structural-functional units was conducted with applying GIS methods in MapInfo Professional software. The units were classified on the base of topographic maps from 90. of XX century (in scales 1:10 000 and 1:50 000), town plan from 2004 (scale 1:20 000) and orthophotomaps from 2009 (1:5 000). All cartographic materials were calibrated and registered in Poland CS92 coordinate system (EPSG: 2180). The boundaries of identified structural- functional units were corrected in the field works also. 4. Results and discussion The total of 17 structural-functional units were identified at the area of Mysłowice town. The units are divided to 3 point, 3 linear and 11 polygonal character (Table 1 and Fig. 1). Within two main unit the subtypes are divided: in river network – 3 subtypes and in road network – 2 subtypes. Table 1. The structural-functional units identified at the area of Mysłowice town Unit types Unit characteristic and notes point units public buildings government offices (Tax Office) and local government (Town Hall), schools, hospitals,